December 7-10,
2000 and the venue was a true fantasy land. Atlantis Resort at Paradise Island, Nassau,
Bahamas is probably the most unique place we've been for a regatta
so far!

For us it began
with the preparation of the new Javelin...a Farr
49, just arrived from Italy where she had just taken 2nd place
in the Sardinia Cup as Invicta...formerly Merit Cup...
and before that, Breeze. We spent the day of her
arrival at Port Everglades waiting for her to be unloaded from
the ship.
I'll keep this short by saying some damage was done to her by
the shippers so the time schedule was pushed back while repairs
were finished. With hard work by the captain and the Derecktor's
yard in Fort Lauderdale and Crackerboy's yard in Palm Beach she
was barely ready in time for her first scheduled regatta. That
was the Wirth Munroe...in which we took a 2nd. Not bad for a first
event! A brief practice the day after and then the crew was to
meet the boat at Atlantis 4 days later for the first race around
the marks on December 7th.

Except for a few
of us crazy people who actually volunteer to sail 200 miles in
a Nor'easter blowing up to 30kts with 10-12' seas! You guessed
it....Stef and Tom! Ok...so we had a few others aboard too....the
captain (Jan) of course, and Garrett, and our friends Larry and
Jay Michael.

We at first had
planned to do the feeder race over, but even the best laid plans
often go awry. So from Palm Beach, straight across the "stream"..
up the Northwest Providence Channel, around Great Stirrup and
over to Nassau in 21 hours!!! It was quite the ride! We saw numbers
in the 15.8kt. range on the "fun meter" and believed
them! This boat loves to surf!

The wild fast
ride gave us the advantage of having some time to see Atlantis
and enjoy the resort attractions. This place is really quite amazing!
The water slides are fast and steep and the whole atmosphere is
like walking around in a sunken city with aquariums, fish and
waterfalls everywhere you look.

Wednesday night
we of the delivery crew went out for dinner in town and saw a
pretty impressive limbo act! Only in the Bahamas!

Thursday morning
the crew met at the boat...all except our bowman. We learned his
flight had been canceled and he would not arrive until later that
day. We did some position changes and headed to the start line.
We have to give credit to Garrett for stepping up to the challenge
of life on the pointy end. Tom did Mast and Stef was in her normal
Pit position. Our lack of practice showed dramatically as we finished
both of the day's races in 3rd place...which was also next to
last.

Friday our bowman
showed up so we had hopes for a better finish and though it was
an uphill battle, we were pleased with our results of 2 second
place finishes.

Friday night's
outdoor bar-b-que turned into an indoor event due to rain but
the Margaritas were fine and the food was plentiful...as was the
Kalik beer.

Saturday the R/C
decided to be kind to the sailors and give us only one race so
we all had a half day off to play on the water slides and in the
Casino and take advantage of all the attractions at Atlantis.
Our second place finish combined with Strabo's 4th place finish
put us in second place in class by 1/4 point.

The Saturday night
party was an impressive buffet with steak and fish and chicken...all
we could eat...yummy deserts too... not to mention the free pour
Margaritas and Kalik again! Thank you SPONSORS! Stef's claim to
fame for the evening was to be the first and only person there
to ring the hook on the Bahamian Ring Toss game in ONE SHOT!

Sunday
the challenge was for us to beat Strabo again to maintain our
2nd overall for the event and Harrier was doing her best to make
us work hard for the position. She covered us tightly all day
but we still managed to pull it off.

Sunday
afternoon was the awards and luncheon out at the tent and we were
pleased with our 2nd place in class finish with a 4th overall
for the event.

We all
hope to go back next year and bring home some Crystal! Congratulations
to Magnitude for your first place overall!